Intrada has announced next week's two limited edition soundtrack CDs -- the first-ever release of the original score tracks for Elmer Bernstein's music for the 1959 religious drama THE MIRACLE, starring Carroll Baker and Roger Moore (Bernstein later re-recorded highlights from the score for his Film Music Collection LP set), and the first commercial release of John Debney's popular score for the 1993 fantasy comedy HOCUS POCUS, starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as a trio of evil witches (Debney released the score decades ago as one of the first composer promo CDs).

The latest release from Kritzerland, already in stock and available to purchase, is a new, greatly expanded release of the score to director Philip Kaufman's 1993 RISING SUN, based on the Michael Crichton bestseller. Sean Connery (playing a character so clearly written for him that he's actually named "John Connor") and Wesley Snipes starred in this thriller focusing on the potential menace of Japanese business interests in the U.S. (I know, it was the nineties), and the score was composed by the enormously acclaimed concert and film composer Toru Takemitsu (Woman in the Dunes, Dodes'ka-den, Ran). The original soundtrack CD, from Fox Music, featured 27 minutes of Takemitsu's score plus additional music -- Kritzerland's release, limited to 1000 units, features the complete score, with over 40 minutes of previously unreleased music.

Monstrous Movie Music plans to release six new CDs shortly -- the first will be the score for the 1973 action film THE DOLL SQUAD, composed by Nichoas Carras (Missile to the Moon, Frankenstein's Daughter, She Demons).

On October 29, Varese Sarabande will release Mark Mothersbaugh's score to LAST VEGAS, the new comedy teaming up Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline and Morgan Freeman.

September 27 - Cyril Mockridge begins recording his score for Many Rivers to Cross (1954)
September 28 - Miles Davis died (1991)
September 28 - John Williams begins recording his score to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
September 29 - Mike Post born (1944)
September 30 - Miklos Rozsa begins recording his score for Young Bess (1952)
September 30 - Elmer Bernstein begins recording his score to The View From Pompey's Head (1955)
September 30 - Andrew Gross born (1969)
September 30 - Richard Einhorn begins recording his score to Dead of Winter (1986)
September 30 - Virgil Thomson died (1989)
October 1 - Irwin Kostal born (1911)
October 1 - George Duning begins recording his score to The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959
October 1 - Jerry Goldsmith begins recording his score to The Prize (1963)
October 1 - Ernst Toch died (1964)
October 1 - Ron Goodwin begins recording his score to Where Eagles Dare (1968)
October 2 - Bernard Herrmann marries his first wife, writer Lucille Fletcher (1939)
October 2 - Recording sessions begin on Nathan Barr's score to Hostel (2005)
October 3 - Roy Webb born (1888)
October 3 - Arnold Bax died (1953)
October 3 - Jeff Alexander begins recording his rejected score to Saddle the Wind (1957)
October 3 - Johnny Mandel begins recording his rejected score to The Seven-Ups (1973)

DID THEY MENTION THE MUSIC?

BATTLE OF THE YEAR - Christopher Lennertz

"The miracle of the new 3-D dance film ‘Battle of the Year’ is how it can be so relentlessly boring while there is so much frenetic activity on screen. Despite the break-dance spins and disorienting strobe lights in the performance scenes, the movie feels sluggish throughout. It cannot be revived by the bombastic music -- more appropriate for a space or military epic -- that underscores every dramatic scene."

Miriam Bale - New York Times

C.O.G. - Joe Berry, Steve Reich

"'C.O.G.' was beautifully shot in Oregon by Jas Shelton in a series of balanced compositions that contrast nicely with Samuel's unease, and the score by Steve Reich has an almost Tangerine Dream-ish melancholy to it. This is only Alvarez's second movie, but he already has confidence to spare, not least in the way he cuts a lot of Sedaris's more colorfully funny lines of dialogue and replaces them with slightly more realistic talk. He wisely does not hew closely to Sedaris's tone because that would probably lead to disaster."

Dan Callahan, Roger Ebert.com

"Scored to clapping sounds that accentuate David’s anxious condition, and bolstered by beautiful cinematographic framing that expresses his alienation, the film strikes a fine balance between hilarity and heartbreak."

Nick Schager, The Dissolve

"Though it begins as a droll comedy, the score is made up of rhythmic handclaps, and Samuel’s asides seem torn from Sedaris’ writing -- things do take some dark turns as the story progresses."

Cory Everett, The Playlist

"We first meet the young man on a bus ride to the farm in which he encounters one strangely disruptive customer after another: He's confronted by a woman complaining about her love life, gets lectured by a psychopath and witnesses a couple getting it on, a staccato composition underscoring each moment. The humor comes from David's increasingly befuddled stare at each of these events, implying that he sees the rest of the world as somehow wrong-headed or weird in contrast to his own standards. The ensuing movie shows how they unravel."

Eric Kohn, IndieWIRE

"Though Samuel is no fan of the Bible (his gripe? 'It’s poorly written,' he quips), he does his best while staying under Jon’s roof to take all the prayer and proselytizing seriously -- as does the film, which by this point has evolved from satire (characterized by disarming happy-slappy music) to more ambiguous, soul-searching terrain."

Peter Debruge, Variety

"The strain is apparent from the outset in 'C.O.G.' as grad student David (Groff) travels across the country by bus to Oregon with an unenviable assortment of seatmates. An irate pregnant black woman spews forth an outrageously obscene diatribe against her baby daddy, the couple in front get way too down and dirty for public transport, and a tattooed Jesus freak assures David that reading can’t compare to prison as a learning institution. Punctuating these interludes with percussive scoring that mimics handclaps, the film right off the bat tries too hard."

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

ENOUGH SAID - Marcelo Zarvos

"The passage of time is marked by regular montages of Eva massaging her clients, which, as bathed in Marcelo Zarvos’ easy-listening score, usher the film in a soothingly banal direction."

Justin Chang, Variety

PRISONERS - Johann Johansson

"Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson’s breathtaking score does a lot with precious little; an ominous, seemingly ever-present rumble keeps us in the grips of torment, as does Villeneuve for the length of this 2½-hour nerve-grinder."

T’cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette

"This is one of the year's most intense motion pictures, captured in riveting, color-bled widescreen images by legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, with Johann Jóhannsson's eerie score goosing the suspense."

Dann Gire, Daily Herald

"Score by Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson (also making his big-studio debut) strikes just the right haunting, mournful notes."

"The races are simply breathless to watch (helped along by Hans Zimmer's pulsating score), even if you know the twists and turns of the story, while Howard always make sure the viewer knows exactly how everything is playing out cleanly and clearly."

Kevin Jagernauth, The Playlist

"The movie might have benefited from a tweak or two, whether in tightening the pacing of the third act or dialing down Hans Zimmer’s overblown score a notch, but overall 'Rush' is an exhilarating surprise from a director who’s been playing it safe for most of his career. Like his heroes, he takes a risk and wins."

Alonso Duralde, The Wrap

"On the one hand, it is satisfying seeing Howard expertly handling a piece of adult mass entertainment. He's forged a team combining 'Slumdog Millionaire' veterans like fluid cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and production designer Mark Digby with his own regular editors Dan Hanley and Mike Hill and veteran composer Hans Zimmer. Together, they make the lure and excitement of fast machines palpable on screen."

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"Hans Zimmer’s score regularly stokes the film’s engine and only some digitally-enhanced skies prevent this from truly looking like a film of its day."

Graham Young, Birmingham Mail

"If the images don’t propel the action fast enough, Howard uses clever sound design and pounding music (from 'Gimme Some Lovin'’ to Hans Zimmer’s U2-esque guitar stylings) to put you in the slipstream. The result is far more immersive than any 3D you can imagine, and makes 'The Fast And The Furious' look like 'The Ambling And The Disgruntled.'"

Ian Freer, Empire Magazine

"To witness this level of storytelling skill (applied to a subject only a fraction of the public inherently finds interesting) is to marvel at not only what cinema can do when image, sound and score are so artfully combined to suggest vicarious experience, but also to realize how far Howard has come since his directorial debut, 1977’s bang-up 'Grand Theft Auto.' The technique is so cutting-edge, it’s impossible to tell where the practical photography ends and visual effects begin -- and besides, the two leading men are so enthralling, audiences’ minds have little time to drift away from the human-interest story at its core. Too often in the intervening years, Howard has played it safe, but here, his choices are anything but obvious. He embraces the power of music to heighten the experience, but goes the opposite direction that one might expect with it, using Hans Zimmer’s cello-driven score to steer things to a deeper place. The same goes for the story itself: Who else would have imagined F1 as an appropriate conduit for existential self-examination? And yet, you’ve seldom felt more alive in a movie theater than you will experiencing 'Rush.'”

"Working from Matthew F. Jones' adaptation of his own novel, director David M. Rosenthal creates a visceral experience, favoring mood over plot clarity. He paints a vivid, unsentimental picture of rural poverty, using verdant Vancouver locations and Atli Orvarsson's strong score to convey desolation and dread."

Sheri Linden, Los Angeles Times

"He gets phone threats; his friends, mostly bearded roughnecks, behave like maybe they know something; and the score, Atli Övarsson's, is all disintegrating strings -- clearly, this will get ugly. It does, suspensefully, the film grim, well-executed, and appealingly humble in its ambitions."

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

"Unfortunately, 'A Single Shot' contains some dysfunctional elements, particularly its music. Over and over again, the high, shrieking strings of Atli Örvarsson’s score barge into scenes in an obvious attempt to jangle nerves. They’re overused, and they sound as through they’ve been borrowed from a cheap horror movie, rather than one that mostly amps up its suspense with subtlety. It’s harsh to say that the music comes close to ruining the movie at times, but… it comes close to ruining the movie at times. This is a film that’s all atmosphere and low simmer, not cheap-fright 'gotchas.' (Although, to be fair, there is one pretty chilling 'gotcha.') The score runs counter to that overall mood and mission."

Jen Chaney, The Dissolve

“More than anything else, David M. Rosenthal’s ‘A Single Shot’ is an effective exercise in sustained mood. The film’s aura -- wilderness gloom, small-town criminality, animal carcasses, rivers flowing with blood, Atli Örvarsson’s grief-stricken score, Sam Rockwell’s beard -- tells us how to feel. A sense of mounting dread seeps into the frames, removing traces of color until all that’s left is grey, brown and sometimes black. The production notes identify the setting as “the backwoods of West Virginia,” but the movie itself makes no attempt to clarify this; we just recognize the primal elements: mountains, water, snow, tress, rocks, clouds.”

Danny King, Paste Magazine

“There are a hundred strands here, any number of which could have been snipped out to give the others room to breathe (Macy’s lawyer character, for example, is completely unnecessary). With more time for the characters to grow and fill out, perhaps we wouldn’t have needed quite such an intrusive ‘here’s what you should be feeling right now’ score? (Note: when one character is hacking off pieces of another while shoving a gun into his mouth, we really don’t need hysterical, squawking strings to tell us that the situation is a perilous one).”

Jessica Kiang, The Playlist

"Viewed exclusively on these terms, 'A Single Shot' holds plenty of interest, though the plot never manages to reach the gripping heights of the chilly air surrounding it. The mopey soundtrack, replete with shrieking violins at nearly every intense twist, sounds like a desperate bid to push the despair into poetic territory. It only gets about halfway there. Throughout the increasingly dire proceedings, Rosenthal creates a sense of buildup that's eventually a tease. But while 'A Single Shot' fires more than a few blanks, it still manages to make them resonate."

Eric Kohn, IndieWIRE

"The dirge-like score sets the mood from the outset, betraying any sense of a hopeful outcome for a protagonist, whom despite his many flaws, succeeds in drawing us into his dilemma. But the pace feels too languid, draining some of tension and suspense from the story."

Bruce DeMara, Toronto Star

"Subtle is not a word you would use to describe 'A Single Shot,' though, as it reaches its climactic conclusion -- and in case we couldn't figure out for ourselves that lives are at stake, the screechy, insistent score from Icelandic composer Atli Orvarsson spells everything out for us."

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com

"Indeed, it’s never hard to tell when something bad is about to happen, given the frequency with which Atli Orvarsson’s score cranks up the discordant string section of doom."

Leslie Felperin, Variety

"Shot in murky tones by Eduard Grau and wildly overscored with Atli Orvarsson’s agitatissimo string section, 'A Single Shot' becomes both laborious and clumsy at wrangling all its plot points."